


This Might as Well Happen

by lovelyirony



Series: Take It Down [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: also they're just assholes trying to stop this thing, and yes tony DID call rhodey when it was christmas, not sure, okay also winteriron MIGHT happen?, pepper can and will fight god if it means she can get her schedule to run smoothly, she's just Like That, what else was expected, yeah hydra's back and tony's like 'well. that's unfortunate'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22850476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyirony/pseuds/lovelyirony
Summary: Tony finds out that Hydra has been back, SHIELD isn't pristine, and Rhodey and Pepper are willing to help him try to take down it all. With two friends, what could go wrong? Well...you'd be surprised.
Series: Take It Down [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1642696
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	This Might as Well Happen

“So let’s let things come out of the woodwork/I’ll give you my best side, tell you all my best lies” Homemade Dynamite, Lorde 

Tony was a curious little shit ever since he could remember. He remembers trying to sneak into the meeting rooms when Dum-Dum Dugan and Peggy Carter would meet with Dad. (He failed at this because he never really learned how spies actually gathered information.) 

His knowledge was highly encouraged by tutors that could never keep up and Jarvis, who would buy him the most obscure books he could. 

(“Jarvis, this book is in Japanese!” 

“Are you saying you can’t figure it out?” 

“Well, no…”) 

And now this has royally screwed him over because he’s still figuring out how he’s hacking into shit and he just found…something. 

The thing about computers and him is that Tony understands computers on a level most don’t. Hell, he’s built most of the systems that he knows to be better than the commercially available ones. 

This is how he figures out that there’s a hit out on his parents. For the night that he said he wasn’t going to go to because “it was super lame” and the fact that Howard’s already disappointed in him and he’d rather not try to awkwardly bond with him in public because that’s what people expect from him. 

But now he has to go. 

Which sucks, by the way. Because he’s not telling his parents that they’re going to be killed because that’s just…Howard wouldn’t believe him and Mama would probably wring her hands out of their sockets and ring up the president or some shit like that. 

Besides, it’s easy to change what’s going to happen, even if he is only a young adult or however you categorize a twenty year old. 

He simply updates the file. It’s not like anyone can tell, especially when the system that the organization is using was mainly designed by him with minimal input from other sources. 

He says that the Stark family will be leaving at midnight, even though the function carries on much later and his parents often like to stay out quite a bit later than midnight. 

Tony then tells them that he’s decided to go. 

“Why?” Howard asks suspiciously. “You said it yourself that this was supposedly ‘the most boring thing you would ever be doing’.” 

“Teenagers change minds all the time,” Tony says with a shrug. “And it’s not the most boring thing I could be doing. I could be asking Beatriz in accounts how she files paperwork.” 

Tony’s not even surprised that his dad doesn’t know all of his employees. He hires a lot of people, but still. 

“Please wear the shirt I’ve laid out on your bed,” mama pleads to him. “Please. Don’t let it be like last time.” 

“And here I was thinking you liked that I wore a rock t-shirt with a suit.” 

“You looked a mess, darling.” 

“That’s a trend now, mama.” 

“Not for my boy.” 

“Okay, fine. I won’t wear it. By the way, I’m taking a separate car. Just don’t want to be stuck there when you and dad decide to talk to someone for, like, three hours.” 

(He still wears plaid pants. His mother hates him for it.) 

As he’s watching the party, he’s kind of amazed at how much he knows. 

Mama and Howard are having a good time at the gala. So good, in fact, that they don’t notice at midnight when Tony switches keys and takes Howard’s car. 

He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, honestly. He just knows that Howard drives like he wishes he was a turtle and his mama refuses to drive anywhere. 

There’s a motorcycle behind him, and Tony counts on them thinking that he’s Howard. 

And then he turns left. 

\- 

Hydra doesn’t know what the hell is happening. They’ve gotten too confident–no one was in the gala or investigated Howard before any of this. He should never have made a left turn 

But Winter Soldier is hunting him down. And Winter Soldier never misses a target. 

…right? 

\- 

Tony’s currently panicking and also the Beatles are on the radio–which is weird, by the way, it’s not even a well-known song–and he’s trying to outmaneuver a motorcyclist who has a gun and has fired it once, the bullet whizzing into the front glass and cracking it. 

He has a crazy idea. Well, it’s not the craziest you could have. He could’ve flown the car off a ditch and tried to jump out the window. But he can’t keep turning forever and he can’t keep ducking his head to try to avoid shots that are a little too close to his head to ignore. 

He brakes and he brakes hard. The guy runs into the car, falls, and Tony gets out and runs for it. 

That’s stupid. Very stupid. And it wasn’t supposed to happen. 

None of this was supposed to happen. 

Disoriented and confused, Winter Soldier sits up and tries to refocus on the target. 

Even if he just smashed his head against a bumper and shit, was that a dent? That was definitely a dent, Winter Soldier knew one thing: that that wasn’t the target, and somewhere along the way something got messed up. 

Hydra didn’t know that Howard and Maria were safely exiting the gala at two in the morning and grumbling about taking Tony’s entirely-too-showy vehicle that had the volume blasting and music that was too vulgar for both of their tastes the only sort of music that was programmed into the radio stations or on the CDs of music that were stuffed in the passenger side-door. 

Hydra didn’t know that they were going to have to deal with, mainly because Tony’s a gigantic asshole who knows more than them but also doesn’t know how he’s going to break the news to his parents that they might die? 

He honestly might just make himself a target for them. 

But he also needs to figure out how to shut down Hydra because clearly Cap going down into the ice didn’t just automatically fix it all. 

-

This involves going to SHIELD. And then as he approaches the building, realizing that the only reason he found out about Hydra is because he hacked into SHIELD databases mainly because he just wanted to see what it was like and if he could get into the deeper encryption is because they were probably a part of the organization. 

Tony sighs to himself. This means changing literally everything about his life. 

Honestly, he wishes he hadn’t even discovered this because he has this sense of “something needs to be done” and he just does not care for that shit at all. 

Except he does. 

So instead he calls Rhodey. 

“Only you could ruin Christmas,” Rhodey grumbles. “I’ll meet you at the coffeeshop. I hate you for this.” 

“I know, love you too,” Tony says. “Fate of the world depends on it or whatever.” 

Rhodey has no idea why he’s friends with this crazy fucking millionaire kid, but they meet at a coffee shop and Tony’s wearing plaid pants, the shirt is dissheveled, and he says that he ditched a car and took the subway. 

“Wow, good for you,” Rhodey teases. “Taking the subway like us commoners.” 

They don’t say anything for a beat. 

“Get your coffee. We’re taking a walk.” 

“At three a.m.? Seriously?” 

“Short walk. Don’t be such a baby about it.” 

They get coffee and start walking. Tony links arms with him. 

“So you remember learning about Hydra when you were a kid?” 

“Eh, somewhat. Something about being an offshoot of Nazism?” 

“Not…exactly. They were more of supportive of the Nazi agenda and the Nazis were chill with that. No, they were more proactive on world domination and making sure that they also overpowered the universe or whatever. Yeah, they’re still here.” 

“…fuck. Well, what do you want to do about it?” 

That’s what Tony appreciates about Rhodey. He’s just ready to kick ass whenever. 

“I can’t talk to SHIELD about it. So I’m gonna try to do it with some people outside of it. You ready to infiltrate Stark Industries with extra employees?” 

“Oh my god, so you’re actually gonna take the company at twenty-one instead of letting Obie do it?” 

“Yes, unfortunately. Our trip to Cabo will have to wait.” 

“To be completely honest with you, I didn’t want to go anyway.” 

“Rhodey, you bitch. I even had a good place to stay and everything!” 

“Doesn’t matter now, sweetheart,” Rhodey says, smiling. “Now we have to hire people before SHIELD does.” 

-

It takes a while. Tony has to go to MIT and take business classes for credit (barf) and look at other, scarier parts of the internet. 

He and Rhodey also keep practicing fighting after-hours and Tony’s pretty sure that he could create a flight-suit if he so desired. 

(And if his projects for engineering would Stop Being Due All the Time, things would be better.) 

They meet a girl named Pepper Potts who’s trained in ballet, could kick God’s ass and have God apologize, and was looking at recruitment at SHIELD or joining a sorority. 

“Or, there’s a better option,” Tony adds. “Taking down an organization that’s a conspiracy thread on Reddit with surprisingly solid evidence.” 

“You’re making this sound worse,” Rhodey says with a snort. “Listen, Pepper. We’re going to take down an organization that people say doesn’t exist. Tony survived an attack from an assassin that technically probably should be dead. It’ll go on your resume and you legally could never be fired ever or else it would be all over the news and you would ruin a company without contributing to it. Join or lose the opportunity.” 

“I’m in.” 

“Rhodey, I hate you,” Tony pouts. 

Rhodey is barely over twenty-one and trying to figure out how to tell his superior officer that he should stay at home when he had expressed overseas interest, Pepper’s just celebrated her twentieth birthday and has five cents in her bank account, and Tony’s only nineteen and forgot how to spell ‘experience’ on more than one occasion. 

They’re gonna take over the world.

**Author's Note:**

> listen do i know if i'll continue this? absolutely not.


End file.
